OUR FIRST EVENT!

BOLD HEATH BE 90

Today Pete and I completed our first BE 90 together at Bold Heath.

Dressage

Pete warmed up well for the dressage, but unfortunately as I went in to do my test he went lazy on me and he performed a lacklustre test. I was a little disappointed but not surprised to hear we scored 39.5. I know Pete can do much, much better than this and next time I will wear a pair of spurs to back up my leg when he goes lazy. I have to be careful not to use too much leg as he has a tendency to put in a cheeky buck as he doesnt like to be rushed!

Show Jumping

For some reason, I felt very nervous for the jumping, especially considering at 90cm, it was actually a step down in level for us. Pete unfortunately had fence 2 down, which to be fair was my fault as I added a stride and he got a little deep into it. He jumped the rest well though to finish on 4 faults.

Cross Country

Pete set off well on the cross country but was quite spooky and unsure so I took the long route at fence 4, the corner. He hesitated at the 1st water jump but went in and jumped out well over the pallisade. We came to the next fence, a wall with a small drop behind and unfortunately he spooked at the wall and ran past it, incurring 20 penalties. He jumped fairly well round the rest of the course but was a little bit spooky and still unsure so more practice is required for our Kelsall event! All in all this was not too bad for a debut.

Bold Heath - Bolesworth Prep!

With Bolesworth only being a week away, I wanted to have a confidence building outing on Pete before we went.

We took him to Bold and we did the 1.10m A4. For some reason, Pete was a bit wild today and over keen, trying to leap in front of fences and aiming to jump the barrier between the rings(!!) Im not entirely sure what had got into him, but I struggled to contain him today and we had 4 faults coming out of the double, oh well, at least he is keen!!

Bold Heath twice in March!!

We took Pete to Bold twice this month, we finished 2nd with a double clear in the 1m amateur first round to qualify us for the other rounds later in the year. We went back a fortnight later and finished 3rd the same class, so Pete has won £90 in two shows, good boy!

First show and 2 days at Southview

Well a few weeks back we took Pete to his first show at Bold Heath. I did the 95cm A4 speed class, which was one round against the clock. Pete jumped a lovely clear to win the class and pocket £40 prize money. What a fantastic result for our first outing!

Since I got Pete, I've had the Amateur 3 day show at Southview in my sights. I had planned to do the 90cm on the friday and the 90cm grand prix on the Sunday. As it happened, I decided to jump both the 90cm and 1m classes as I felt ready for doing the slightly bigger class.

On the friday, it was very busy and Pete jumped well but unfortunately hit a pole in each class for 4 faults. Saturday was rest day and we went back on the Sunday for the Grands Prix. After Friday, I had decided to skip the 90cm and jump in the deep end and jump the 1m and also the Ladies 1.10m, which was to be our biggest test to date.

First up was the 1m, Pete jumped a fantastic clear over a technical track to make it to the jump off. We were drawn 2nd to go in the jump off and I decided to gamble on a clear as I wasnt sure how he would go against the clock. Unfortunately, we hit the upright going into the double for 4 faults anto finish 12th, just out of the placings.

I walked the course for the 1.10 Ladies, and it was huge, I had not jumped 1.10 since I had Jess about 6 years ago. I was nervous but I decided to go in and give it my best shot. Pete jumped the first half of the course fantastically, making light work of the big combination. As we came to the double unfortunately shot forward and hit the fence going in then unsettled himself and argued with me to the next fence, so I circled him to regain our composure and finshed the course really well. I was very pleased with our first attempt at 1.10m there are things to work on but its still very early days.